The invention relates to a wiping device, specifically for motor vehicles, having a wiper blade which has a wiper rubber with two longitudinal grooves arranged opposite each other and a support element in the form of two ribbon-like, elongated flexible splines positioned in the longitudinal grooves, where an adapter element is provided on the support element to connect the wiper blade to a driveable wiper arm, and where a connecting element extending in the transverse direction is provided on at least one of the open ends of the wiper blade to join the ends of the flexible splines arranged opposite each other. The invention also relates to a wiper blade and a method of producing a wiping device and a wiper blade.
In the case of a known wiping device, the support element in the form of two ribbon-like, elongated flexible splines ensures an optimal distribution of the wiper-blade contact pressure emanating from the wiper arm against the glass. To achieve this, the support element is pre-bent accordingly in its unloaded state, when the wiper blade is not lying against the glass, and has a curvature which depends, among other factors, on the curvature of the glass to be wiped. The support element of a wiping device of this kind replaces the complex and expensive yoke design with two flexible splines located in the wiper body, as they have become known, for example, from DE-15 05 357.
Connecting elements are known from DE 197 29 864 A1, which extend in the transverse direction at the open ends of the wiper blade and which join the flexible splines arranged opposite each other. Such connecting elements, described as retainers in the cited document, consist of several retainer parts connected together which are pushed over the ends of the flexible splines. The disadvantage of this prior art is that the retainers are expensive to assemble since they consist of several individual parts. There is also no assurance that the retainers will not be dislodged under increased loads, for example, when the vehicle drives through a car wash, due to the effects of the brushes and cloth scrubber cleaning systems on the wiping device, which affects the ability of the wiping device to operate. A further disadvantage of a wiping device in accordance with the prior art is that pushing the retainer over the ends of the flexible splines requires the length of the flexible splines to be longer by the space needed for retainer installation than the wiper rubber positioned between the flexible splines.
The object of the present invention is therefore to remedy the disadvantages of the prior art just described.